The present invention pertains to computer-based simulation of real-world environments. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for creating and customizing avatars for use a virtual environment.
Computer games and arcade games often feature animated, user-controlled characters which represent human users and which appear human or humanoid. These characters are referred to as xe2x80x9cavatarsxe2x80x9d. Currently, there is growing interest in creating an on-line community in which people can interact with each other in a virtual world, through avatars. Ideally, the virtual world will provide sufficient xe2x80x9crichnessxe2x80x9d so that the avatars can interact with each other and their virtual environment in much the same way people interact in the real world. The availability of the Internet makes such a virtual world potentially accessible to millions of users. Such a virtual world may impact many areas of everyday life, including communications, entertainment, commerce, and education, to name just a few.
The usefulness and success of an avatar-based game or virtual community depends largely on the sophistication and realism of the avatars. Users will not be inclined to use or participate in such applications if their avatars are either unrealistic or too-limited in capability. Hence, some potentially desirable characteristics of avatars are: 1) that they are identifiably humanoid; 2) that they are attractive to the user; 3) that they can have many variations and possess individual uniqueness; and 4) that they can interact realistically with other objects in their virtual environments.
Today, attractiveness and visual realism of avatars are sometimes achieved through three-dimensional (3-D) modeling packages that exploit artistic talent in character modeling, to model each unique avatar. This approach becomes expensive, however, if the goal is to generate many thousands of avatars, where each avatar is unique. Existing tools allow users to define limited variations in avatars through single-parameter or multiple-choice selection interfaces. These interfaces tend to allow only simple functions, such as a direct scaling of an avatar or its limbs. Thus, current techniques for creating avatars are poorly suited for creating large numbers of diverse, unique, highly-realistic avatars.
The present invention includes a method and apparatus for creating an avatar. The method includes maintaining a number of values, each of which represents a different user-perceivable attribute of the avatar. An encoded representation of the values is then transmitted over a network, to enable display of the avatar by a remote processing system, based on the values.
In various embodiments, the values may represent non-geometry parameters, which are subsequently used to generate geometry parameters for purposes of rendering the avatar. Also, in various embodiments, one or more of the values may represent a biomechanical, behavioral, and/or biometric attribute of the avatar. The values may be adjusted by a user to allow the user to customize the avatar. The customization process may be performed using a graphical user interface designed for avatar customization. Adjusting one or more of the values may generate a variation of a previously-generated avatar and may be used to control blending between two or more 3-D models or animation scripts. An avatar may be generated by using a pseudorandom number generator to generate one or more of the values.